A fragile, hauntingly beautiful indie folk reverie, mary in the junkyard’s “bear walk” aches inside and out as the London-based band share a plaintive story of love and loss, leaving and longing.
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mary in the junkyard’s latest single elicits an intense – and for me, unavoidable – emotional response.
Shivers shooting down the spine. A full flip of the gut. A seething warmth within, and a stunned silence without. The last time I heard something this raw would have been in 2008 or ‘09, the first time I played Bon Iver’s “Flume.”
A fragile, hauntingly beautiful indie folk reverie, “bear walk” aches inside and out as the London-based band share a plaintive story of love and loss, leaving and longing. It’s a delicate, provocative display of tenderness as a form of dramaticism, where despite all that’s expressed through the band’s breathtaking performance, it’s all the words left unsaid that hit the hardest and resonate the most.
In the fir tree days
I was on your back
I had no shoes back then,
you picked up the slack
and spirit guides were
pulling me limb from limb
i said a prayer for you
so you wanted to stay
We would eat the birds
we caught that evening
in the wild days
“‘bear walk’ is the story of someone trying to make their lover stay with them in their feral lifestyle,” the band tells Atwood Magazine. “It is about the push and pull between wildness and conventionality, and was born from us playing some acoustic gigs over the summer.”
The trio of Clari Freeman-Taylor (vocals, guitar), Saya Barbaglia (bass, viola), and David Addison (drums), mary in the junkyard initially began as a folk project before evolving into an indie and alternative rock-focused endeavor, releasing the sonically charged, soul-stirring debut single “Tuesday” in late 2023 followed by their debut EP this old house in the spring of 2024. Stripped down to all-acoustic instrumentation, “bear walk” makes clear their prowess with and without amplifiers, shining a particularly naked spotlight on Freeman-Taylor’s evocative storytelling skills and her spellbinding vocal abilities.
And in the night time
we sat by the fireside
nothing to think of
but i want to survive
and spirit guides were
all kept on the insides
they carved their symbols
into my eyes
they told me you were
leaving in my dreaming
i thought that i had time
The result is as intimately moving as it is immediately memorable: A moment of nostalgia-soaked stillness that brings us not only closer to the band, but to ourselves as they reckon with the untamable parts of our souls, and those who come into – and eventually, out of – our lives.
“bear walk” is without a doubt an ode to a simpler time; wistful and gentle, it’s sung with more love than we’ll ever know. And yet, it’s the product of grief; of pain; of a hurting and emptiness inside that the narrator couldn’t easily reconcile and resolve. It is a special and necessary form of catharsis and closure, both for those who penned it and brought it to life, and for those listening to it now.
I still don’t quite know what a bear walk is – I’ll probably look that up on Google or YouTube after I write this – but I certainly understand what it represents, and I feel, both deep inside and on the surface, when I listen to this song.
but you left that day
with a big suitcase
just like a city boy
i made a disgusted face
and spirit guides were
all going silent
i hoped the dirt would stay
under your fingernails
I hope that there are trees
outside your window
I hope you come back some day
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